Hamsadhwani Creations of Bangalore celebrated its 7th anniversary and music festival from November 3 to 5, 2006 at the Bangalore Gayana Samaja.

K. Jairaj, Commissioner, Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, was the chief guest for the inauguration. Senior musician R. K. Srikantan was the guest of honour. After the inauguration, Violin maestro Prof H. V. Krishnamurthy and G Rajnarayan, MD, Radel Electronics were felicitated. Dr. R. V. Raghavendra of Ananya GML Cultural academy gave the felicitation speech. This was followed by the release of 4th volume of the Vaggeya Vaibhava series featuring compositions of Karnataka composers. This volume is dedicated to compositions of Sri Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar, and is sung by senior vocalist M. S. Sheela. This was followed by a violin duet by this year’s Hamsadhwani awardee Prof H. V. Krishnamurthy and his son H. K. Venkataram.

It was a privilege for Hamsadhwani that the veteran violinist not only accepted the honour but obliged to play after a long time. The concert began with a varna in Natakurinji, which was followed by Dikshitar’s composition in Nata – Mahaganapathim. After one more kriti – Marivere in Anandabhairavi, Prof HVK left the stage for his son. Venkataram went on to play ragam-thanam-pallavi in Shankarabharana, set to Khanda Triputa. The concert combined the essence of aesthetics and scholarship. This was accentuated by the percussionists Tumkur B Ravishankar (Mridangam) and B Amruth (Khanjira), who also played a brilliant thani in Khanda Triputa apart from providing good support to the main artists.

The second day’s programmes began with performances by youngsters. Shruti, Brinda, Subbulakshmi, Usha, Sindhuja and Srimatha sang compositions on Devi. They were accompanied by Jyothsna Manjunath (violin) and Ranjani Venkatesh (Mridangam). This was followed by a veena recital by Suma Sudhindra. The concert began with the all-time favourite Ata thala varna – viriboni in Bhairavi, followed by Siddhivinayakam (Shanmukhapriya). The main raga for the day was Shankarabharana, in which Suma played Akshayalinga vibho. This was embellished with neraval, swaraprasthara and thani avarthanam by the percussion duo C Cheluvaraju (Mridangam) and S. N. Narayana Murthy (Ghatam). Suma was accompanied by her disciple Divya on Veena support.

The final day’s programmes began with a mass recitation of Lalithasahasranamam, followed by rendition of Devi Kritis by disciples of M. S. Sheela. Jayamahishasura mardini (Hamsadhwani), Sampatprade (Kalyani), Marakathavalleem (Kambhoji) were some of the compositions featured. This was followed by a special feature: ‘Nadasudha’, a special jugalbandi concert featuring Sheela in Carnatic vocal and Praveen Godkhindi in Hindustani flute. The theme for the Jugalbandi was a rare one, on ragas in both styles that share a common name, but differ structurally.

The concert began with varna in Abhogi. The second piece was presented individually by the two artists. This was followed by a pallavi in Keeravani, in Adi Thala. This saw ragamalike swaras, keeping with the theme, in ragas such as Shahana, Thodi and Khamach. Other artists featured were: Charulatha Ramanujam (violin), Anoor Ananthakrishna Sharma (Mridangam), Guruprasanna (Khanjira), Uday Raj Karpur (Tabla), and Madhusudan (Pakhavaj). Sangeetha Kalarathna Mysore V Ssubramanya, who was the guest of honour for the day, appreciated Hamsadhwani’s achievements and contribution to the music world with projects such as Haridasa Namana and Vaggeya Vaibhava, in such a short span of time as seven years. The anniversary celebrations concluded with lunch.